You might need about 80% of your current income to maintain your lifestyle in retirement. While a pension and Social Security benefits might provide much of that income, some of your retirement income will probably need to come from additional savings.
That's where your retirement plan comes in. Contributing to your plan can help you fill an income gap you might have in retirement. It also provides advantages such as these:
Flexibility — Start small and increase your contributions anytime; stepping up your contributions just 1% a year can make a huge difference in the amount you’ll have when you retire
Compounding — Your earnings are continually reinvested, helping your account balance grow; that will help you reach your savings goals faster with less money out of pocket
Tax advantages — Your contributions can be made pretax, reducing the amount you owe in federal income taxes for the year you contributed 1
Once you decide to invest in your retirement plan, how much should you contribute? In general, experts suggest contributing 10–20% of your salary for retirement.2 To find out what’s right for you, try using these tools:
The interactive retirement planning tool on your plan’s website — Determine what your contributions should be based on when you plan to retire, your desired lifestyle, your current spending and saving levels, when you started saving, and how much you’ve already saved
Paycheck Impact Calculator — See how your contributions might affect your take-home pay; pretax contributions might impact your paycheck less than you expect
[1] Contributions to Roth retirement accounts are made after-tax and won’t reduce current income taxes; however, you can withdraw them tax free in retirement as long as you meet certain requirements.
[2] What Percentage of Your Salary Should Go Toward Retirement? (investopedia.com), https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/092414/retirement-what-percentage-salary-save.asp